This new variety of lily plant originated as a seedling which first flowered at Sandy, Oreg., in 1970 among a group of seedlings planted by me with the object of producing large flowered, upright and semi-upright Oriental hybrids in shades of soft pink and white, suited to forcing into flower out-of-season, a variety heretofore unknown in the lily breeding art. The seedlings planted by me and among which the present variety appeared came from a mother plant which was a selection from the `Pink Glory` strain pollinated from a selected clone of the species Lilium nobilissimum, this cross being accomplished by maintaining the mother plant in extremely high greenhouse temperatures for at least one week after pollination.
This particular seedling was selected for propagation because its flowers were characterized by an upright to semi-upright orientation, extremely large size, broad tepalled, "bowl-shaped" form, with unusually thick substance, and a distinctive unspotted, pure white coloration, a combination unique among Oriental hybrid lilies. This seedling was asexually reproduced by me and under my direction at Sandy, Oreg., and since the product conformed so well with my objectives, propagation was continued under my direction through several successive generations, at Sandy, Oreg., by natural propagation from bulblets, by bulb scale propagation, and by tissue culturing from bulb scale explants, all of which demonstrated that the novel and distinctive characteristics of the original seedling hold true under asexual propagation from generation to generation and appear to be firmly fixed.
This new plant possesses strong, stout stems, with exceptionally broad leaves, and the clone is found to possess to a high degree the desirable characteristics of hybrid vigor, great hardiness, and disease resistance; with excellence of form, color, and habit.
This new variety has also been found to be well suited to forcing out-of-season when the bulbs are dug at the appropriate time and properly precooled. For example, late October-dug bulbs, properly precooled and potted in January, will flower under glass in western Oregon in an average of one hundred to one hundred and fifteen days with no supplementary lighting and at moderate greenhouse temperatures.